Heartless
by LinaDuck
Summary: Revised! Involves Mousse, cold water, and the Nerima zoo.


Author's Notes  
---------------------  
  
Disclaimer: All of the characters here belong to the brilliant Rumiko Takahashi and not me. I am just using them to write a fanfic that I am not making any money off of. I just spent all my money on a Ranma video, so it is not in your best interest to sue me.   
  
I wrote this about 3 months ago, and read it over, and come to the conclusion that 3 months ago I couldn't write. Added part that sort of de-choppified it. It is still really choppy, though. Redid ending. (You DON'T want to read the old ending. Decided to stop trying to write waffyfics and move on to insanefics and funnyfics. I LOVE writing bloopers! Bloopers rock! I'm working on a set of bloopers now.  
  
Do not read this if you are trying to fill a Shampoo and Mousse void. It is bad at void filling. If you must go read part 18 of Hearts of Ice by Krista Perry. That has a _perfect_ Shampoo and Mousse scene!  
  
-------------------  
  
  
Shampoo knew. And she followed, rising from her bed in formal Chinese  
clothes, the best she had. She did not rub her eyes or brush her hair, she   
simply followed silently. Cologne led the way downstairs, followed by Shampoo.  
  
They walked past Mousse's room, through the kitchen, and out the door.  
Shampoo was so scared. They walked for hours without resting. They turned into   
deep woods, filled with a blackish silence. Cologne and Shampoo stopped in front of a stream.   
It was an ordinary stream, bordered by shrubs and trees. Shampoo stared at it. Cologne  
had said something about this being the source of all the Amazon strength... It was just a   
stream!   
  
Cologne smiled inwardly. Yes, in fact it *was* an ordinary stream. But Shampoo   
couldn't know that. This stream was known as the Kirashima Stream aming the Amazons.  
When an Amazon turned seventeen, they would be taken to this stream and forced to perform battle  
moves over it, trying not to fall in. They would know nothing of their task before this.   
  
"Shampoo, this is the Kirashima Stream. The waters of this stream have been enchanted with   
black magic since the day after the world began. Mighty Amazons, on their seventeenth birthday,   
come here to test their skills. They perform karate moves and moves of that sort while   
jumping over it. No one has fallen in yet... besides Ling Mae... but she does not come   
into this story."  
  
Cologne could see from the look on Shampoo's face that she was worried... that was  
good. All the Amazon girls were told of Ling Mae, the girl that was around when they  
were kids, the girl who fell into the stream. Supposedly, Ling Mae had fallen in the  
stream and had come back with blank eyes, shining with madness.  
  
---  
  
Mousse sat behind a bush, watching. He was wearing his glasses, seeing the   
whole thing. This, of course, was the fabled ritual that Amazon girls went through  
when they were seventeen. He had always wondered what it was. He felt bad for Shampoo, that   
she was that scared. He waited, while Cologne and Shampoo were in deep, quiet conversation.   
  
These woods were sure deep. He remembered the long journey here, where he had to struggle to follow Shampoo and Cologne steadily, but not make so much noise that they saw him. It was well worth it, though, to be with Shampoo, seeing her vivid lavender hair sweeping behind her like bubbles in the sea... that's what she was like, a bubble! A bubble, filled with happiness and laughter and...  
  
Wait, what were those...big round... ovals... eyes... looking at him...  
  
"YAAHHHHHHH!" Mousse jumped backwards, out of the bush, in fear of whatever it might be. In the split second before he collided, he heard a fearful word from Shampoo:  
  
"So... so if I fall in... I will be lost forever?"  
  
He collided with Shampoo. It was a total collision, he went literally flying backwards into Shampoo, sending her sprawling into... into the stream! As soon as Shampoo's littlest finger hit the water he could see her face contort into an expression of horror, and suddenly she started screaming and his face was burning red with embarrassment and Shampoo was submerged and she... Shampoo was a cat.  
  
She was still beautiful as a cat, Mousse thought, although she looked more afraid than anyone he had ever seen. Shampoo suddenly seemed to realize that, A, the stream was not toxic or filled with black magic, B, she was a very cold, wet, cat, and C, that Mousse, stupid Mousse, had pushed her in and scared her to death. At this point both Shampoo and Cologne fixed him with a glare that a blind man would have cowered under.  
  
"Um... heh heh..."   
  
Mousse ran, faster than he had ever run before. He didn't care where he was going, but still hoping he would end up in Tokyo, but Tokyo was not number one priority. He kept running for what seemed like hours (and *was* really hours). His breath was coming hard in his chest, but still he kept running, and did not stop until he reached the city border.   
  
--  
  
The first thing he heard was a voice talking, a voice that meant happiness, and a feeling that soon everything would be fine... the voice of Shampoo. But something was wrong... the voice was cold... and hard...  
  
"Stupid Mousse. Stupid Mousse push Shampoo into stream. Shampoo never been more afraid. Shampoo make sure you never do again."  
  
Mousse wondered what he was doing here... then he opened his eyes and found he was in the restauraunt kitchen, and that Shampoo was standing around him with numerous bottles open... Shampoo was going to kill him!!!  
  
Mousse tried to scream but found that he was gagged. He had never seen her this angry before. It was probably all the times he had annoyed her summed up... but for her to kill him... Mousse writhed in panic, trying to escape Shampoo. A sudden splash of cold water brought him back to his senses, and also turned him into a duck.  
  
"Wak?", said Mousse, confused.  
  
Shampoo was silent as she mixed ingredients. A book was open on the table. Looking at the book (with clear vision, he was still wearing his glasses), he saw that it was... a bird-watching guide? The page was open to Red-Breasted Mallard. And next to the book, there was a note from the zoo. It said:  
  
Dear Shampoo,  
  
We received your message and would be glad to take the Red-Breasted  
Mallard for you as they are quite rare. We also understand that this   
duck loves to swim in cold water and will always be provided with a large  
pool of cold water. Do not worry about your duck, it will be kept under top   
security so nobody will be able to come and harm it. Please bring it at 3:00   
on Monday.  
  
Thanks,  
The Tokyo Zoo  
  
  
Something clicked then.  
  
It was 1:00, and it was Monday. Mousse dodn't know what to think. He knew that Shampoo... well... didn't like him much, but still. Shampoo dipped a paintbrush in the mixture and it came back a deep, bloody red. She reached down to paint his stomach feathers. It tickled.  
  
Suddenly Shampoo seemed to catch sight of Mousse's eyes, which he realized must be all pink and heart-shaped at the moment, as was the classic anime style. "Damn!," he thought.  
  
Shampoo took a drop of an odd-looking clear liquid and placed it on his tongue. Mousse started getting really tired: NO! He had to stay awake! But the potion was calming his mind, numbing his senses... the table started to feel quite warm, and despite all his will he slumped down.  
  
  
--------------  
  
Ryoga walked into the dojo... or, at least what he *thought* was the dojo.  
  
"Hello dense bandana man!" An annoying, overly high voice rang out around the house.  
  
"Oops... sorry, Shampoo, I thought this was the dojo," said Ryoga apologetically.   
  
"No, Ryoga, the dojo just down that street, two lefts, a right, and go straight and you're there." (Ryoga was baffled.) "Come in! You want ramen?"  
  
Something was wrong. Shampoo was being *much* too nice. Something was missing, but what could it be? OH. "Where's Mousse?"  
  
A large sweatdrop appeared on Shampoo's forehead. "Um... Mousse ...sick! Mousse had bad case of... indigestion. Yes, Mousse very sick. You know, Shampoo sick now too! Achoo!" Then she ran away.  
  
Which left Ryoga standing there, lost and baffled.  
  
---------  
  
A month passed. Mousse had been stuck in his awful cursed form, without his glasses, for a month. Shampoo had probably taken them and squashed them, for all she cared about him. It hurt to think of her this way, although he knew it all was true. He loved her, and she knew it. But she hated him.  
  
A long sigh escaped his mouth as he thought of all the things he could have said to her, all the things he could have done, and how maybe, if he had left her alone, Shampoo might, at some point, start liking him more than she did just now. But now it was all over, his chances were gone, Shampoo would love Ranma forever, and he would be a duck. He remembered when he had defeated the birdman and saved Shampoo, and knew then that the only reason Shampoo had been nice to him was simply being grateful for her life, and not her love for him or anything like that. His vision was obscured further as a hot tear slid down his cheek. For a few fleeting seconds he hoped it was enough to change him into a human, but the cause was lost.   
  
He had never felt this hopeless, never in all his life.   
  
Suddenly there was a great roar that jerked him out of his sorrow, a roar like thunder rolling out of a cloud two feet away from you. The tiger! But the tiger never roared like this, not unless someone was majorly pissing it off! Um... what was up? Mousse struggled to fly, like he had so many times before, but like all those times, the glass case that he was in had walls too high for a duck to fly over.  
  
The tiger didn't matter. All that mattered was the one which he would never see again. Everything he had was gone.  
  
Mousse let out all of his breath and dived underwater.  
  
---------------  
  
Ryoga had been SO SURE that the water bird exhibit was that way!  
  
It was not supposed to be the tiger exhibit.   
  
Ryoga slumped against a wall, breathing hard. That was scary. But he had to find Mousse. Ryoga knew exactly how Mousse felt about Shampoo. He felt the same way about Akane.  
  
Ryoga ran to another place that he thought was the water bird exhibit. Instead he found himself in the reptile house.  
  
He tried again. The zoo restauraunt. "AUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"   
  
His cries rung around the empty zoo, and he looked up into the lonely night sky. This was hopeless. Ryoga started the walk home.  
  
He could not, for the life of him, remember why he had come here in the first place. Or how he had known that Mousse was at the zoo, or even how to find the zoo! Of course, he had started in the early afternoon, but that was still very good for him.  
  
He didn't know why he cared so much. A lot of the time it felt like he had only two goals: to marry Akane, and to defeat Ranma. He never cared much about anything else. Ryoga couldn't remember caring about anything else. But here he was, looking for Mousse of all people in the middle of the night in a zoo that he had broken into. Maybe he had... inhaled too much sake at the dojo? No, that wasn't possible... What was he doing here? Everyone was right, he was nothing but an eternally lost boy.  
  
His dejected steps echoed softly around him, and he sighed a long, sad sigh. Suddenly a figure appeared before him. it was silhouetted by the moonlight, and it looked just as sad as him. It spoke with that high, annoying voice he knew so well. And there was a duck in its arms. An unmoving duck.  
  
"Hello Ryoga." There was a hint of deepest sorrow to the voice. Ryoga was instantly worried. "You okay?" He could not believe he was asking Shampoo that. This was totally out of his character.  
  
"Yeah, but what's up with you, Shampoo?," he said. She looked like she was straining to form the word, like it was impossible for her.  
  
"Stupid Mousse." Then she ran away.  
  
-------------------  
  
Shampoo lay Mousse-duck down on his bed. His heart was still beating, but his breathing was ragged and uneven. She poured the kettle of hot water over him, and he twitched a bit and then resumed his human form. His long black hair cascaded lifelessly over his shoulders, and his eyes were like that of an insane man sleeping: they were closed, but they kept fluttering without ever opening. Shampoo had never realized how...no. She could not be thinking this. She was not thinking this. Of course not. Shampoo ran to escape Mousse's room, and escape what she hoped was not true.  
  
"Airen! You go with Shampoo on date? I make you special ramen!"   
"No you freaky Amazon! My Ranchan wants to go with me? Right Ranchan?  
  
"Haha! I am Kodachi, the Black Rose, and Ranma will date with me! Hahahahahahaha!"  
  
Ranma sweatdropped and ran away to go to Other Places. After last weekend, this all felt so much like acting: like she was playing a part in a play. This all happened every day... why did she put up with this? It was obvious to any person with brains that Ranma was totally, madly, deeply in love with Akane Tendo. Her mind had been clouded...clouded with visions of them together...why could she see clearly now? Shampoo missed the blindness of yesterday, all the blindness where her vision was like a tiny tube that you could only see a bit through: all she had been able to see was Ranma. Now thst she could see everywhere, she saw what everyone had seen except her. That she was alone, alone and friendless.   
  
She had pushed Mousse away...told her only friend that she hated him...blamed him for all her problems. She had tried way too hard...  
  
She thought about herself, all about herself. All she saw since she had came to Nerima was passion-spiced ramen, so much ramen, trying to kill Akane, so much chasing. She had known it all the time, hadn't she? That Akane loved Ranma. And that Ranma loved her. Mousse, clear-sighted Mousse, had tried to tell her that. He had loved her through all that...loved her no matter what she did, loved him even when she would try to get him killed...killed! To take Ranma for herself...and visions of uncooked rice and pink rose petals swirling through the air, unreal visions. So unreal...  
  
-----------  
  
Mousse woke up on his bed. He strained to look at his hands, which were not webbed feet. Suddenly he burst out of his bed, suddenly awakened.  
  
"WWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
So who could have done it? It might have been Nabiki. She was calculating; she might have figured out where he was, and then gone to find him.  
  
But Nabiki wouldn't do that sort of thing. He went over all the people. Ranma: too dense, Akane: too dense, Shampoo: No way, Ryoga: Way, way, way too dense, Ukyo: Um... she would notice why? He suddenly realized that he could not think of anyone who really cared about him enough to steal him out of the zoo. He deeply hoped it was her...Shampoo, but knew, with new understanding, that she hated him from the bottom of her heart. He pushed the thought away. Mousse lay back down, as he was a bit dizzy, and found there was something hard under him. He sat up and felt them: his glasses! Yes! He put them on and found a note with them. He deeply hoped it was from Shampoo, but as soon as he realized the thought, he pushed it away with all his might.  
  
  
Dear Mousse,  
  
  
Here are your glasses. I rescued you from the zoo. Wasn't  
what Shampoo did mean? But she was very, very sorry after she did it.  
I hope you someday forgive her. I hope you realize that anyone who knew   
what I knew would have done the same thing. I accept no gratitude, and   
would like it very much if you would not mention it at school or anywhere.  
  
Signed,  
Ryoga Hibiki  
  
  
A smile twitched at the corners of Mousse's mouth. Suddenly he burst out laughing. He kept laughing and laughing, until he had no breath left and could laugh no more.  
  
Did Shampoo think he didn't know her handwriting? Whenever she dropped a school paper, or wrote little notes to herself and lost them, Mousse would take it and keep it. He looked at them often, thinking to himself how beautiful her handwriting was, and how much it reflected her.   
  
All he had wanted to do for all his life was be near her. He had always wished that she would do something like this to him. That was basically his life. Now this had happened, and his life was full now, and now he was happy. There was always an emptiness in his chest that he could not get rid of; it was always there. Now it felt like he was full of happiness, and nothing inside him was ever going to be empty anymore. This was why he worked those long hours in the Nekohanten with Cologne bossing him around. This was why he had followed her from China. This was why he had defeated the Birdman to save her. This was why he would sacrifice his life for her happiness. This was why he loved her.  
  
-----------------  
  
  
--The Next Day--  
  
"Um...Shampoo?"  
  
The slender violet-haired figure looked up at Mousse with sad and surprised eyes. And her face and eyes were a bit...red? Had she been _crying?_ She cared that much?   
  
"Mousse, Shampoo so sorry she do any of that to you! She just mad cause great-grandmother lie to her and you push in stream! I very scared but it not your fault! You do nothing! I such a baka! I so sorry for everything! For this, for Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love..."  
  
She then ran to him from her bed and hugged him. Mousse stood there dumbfounded. For some reason he was not noticing it at all. Shampoo moved to run away but Mousse caught her on the arm.  
  
"Shampoo, what are you apologizing for? I deserved what I got... I mean sure, I love you with all my heart, but if some girl I hated...," Shampoo tried to say something here but Mousse continued. "Followed me around everywhere and trying to practically KILL me and the girl I loved just so she could have a chance in a million at me and glomping me everywhere I went and endlessly trying to PROVE that I was best for you...er...that she was best for me... even when I came right up in her face and said I hated her and that she was a total perverted idiot and that I wanted nothing in the world to do with her..."  
  
Shampoo's brains decided they had had enough and took a vacation.  
  
"Mousse, is not like that. It totally, completely different. Ranma... I know Ranma never love me. Ranma love Akane Tendo. And you..."  
  
"Just stand around making things worse for you," said Mousse.  
  
"No Mousse! Mousse not idiot! I no know. Shampoo...cannot say it."  
  
Mousse wasn't taking in any of this. The words entered his emty head...his brains had decided they had had enough and needed a vaction recently...and were just sitting there banging off his skull and trying to all speak at once...   
  
She smiled. The smile opened her face, shining through all the dried tears and all the times she had cried in her life, all the times she had shouted, all the times she had been worried, all the times Ranma had seemed to be choosing Akane, Ukyo, or Kodachi over her. Mousse wondered what made her smile like that. The only times he had seen her smile was the forced smiles when she was delivering food from Nekohanten, the starry-eyed smiles that she used chasing Ranma, or the evil smiles that she used when planning some new way to destroy him. But this was a totally different smile, a smile of true happiness.  
  
Mousse's brain finally swallowed all the meaning of the words. He realized that she was smiling because...because of him.   
  
"Wo ai ni, Mousse."  
  
A certain pigtailed boy who was passing by suddenly fainted.  
  
------  
  
Genma: Yeah son! You still got it in you! The famous Saotome Fainting Technique!  
  
Author: I KNOW IT IS BAD. SO SUE ME. 


End file.
